Ritual by Dimitris Xygalatas
How Seemingly Senseless Acts Make Life Worth Living
Drawing on fieldwork and laboratory experiments, this book argues that rituals—repetitive, often costly or painful practices—are adaptive cultural technologies that regulate emotion, create social cohesion through synchrony and shared meaning, and signal commitment to build trust and cooperation; blending anthropology, psychology, and neuroscience with vivid case studies from diverse cultures, it explains how ritual helps people cope with uncertainty and trauma, maintain group identity, and even produce measurable physiological and social benefits, while exploring modern secular and therapeutic forms.
Purchase from
Bookshop.org
- Published
- 2022
- Nationality
- British
- Length
- Unknown
- Pages
- Unknown
- Original Language
- English
- Avg User Rating
- No ratings yet
- Alternate Titles
- None
This book is not currently on any lists.